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OPINION

Other views: The challenge Hillary Clinton faces

Published 2:50 p.m. CT April 13, 2015

Hillary Rodham Clinton formally announced her bid for the U.S. presidency Sunday.(Photo: AP)

The large number of Republicans who plan to run for president face a daunting problem. They will have to spend huge amounts of time and money just to introduce themselves to voters. In a recent CNN poll, 39 percent said they had never heard of Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who’s scheduled to announce his candidacy Monday. Even the best-known member of the GOP pack, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, has been out of the public spotlight since he left office eight years ago.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton, who announced her bid for the presidency Sunday in a two-minute video posted on her campaign website, faces no such problem. After a quarter-century in the limelight, she has 99 percent name recognition and leads potential contenders for the Democratic nomination by 40 percentage points or more — an extraordinary position in a party accustomed to fractious nominating fights.

Clinton’s familiarity, however, represents both her biggest advantage and her biggest vulnerability.

On the plus side, she brings more top-level experience — in the White House, Congress and foreign policy — than her rivals put together. She has a devoted fan base that likes her and wants to see her become the first female president. And she has demonstrated an admirable persistence in decades-long fights for women’s rights and guaranteed health care.

But with more experience comes more baggage. Clinton’s record as first lady, senator, candidate and Cabinet member leaves her with a long trail of votes and controversies that cause a good chunk of the electorate — 44 percent in the CNN poll — to view her unfavorably. In an odd way, she has more to prove than lesser-known candidates.

For starters, she will have to show that she can run a disciplined campaign. Her 2008 bid for the Democratic nomination was a mess of the first order. It took her nomination for granted, was plagued by infighting, had a hard time communicating a coherent message, and in some cases didn’t even know the rules of state primaries.

Clinton will also have to convince voters that she understands the importance of openness in government. During her husband’s first term, her secrecy-shrouded health care task force released an unworkable, overly complex plan that makes Obamacare look like an exercise in government restraint. More recently, her decision to run her email from a private server while she was secretary of State raised new concerns about her commitment to transparency.

In the months ahead, she’ll have to navigate the Democratic Party’s increasingly vocal left wing, try to prevent her husband from becoming a distraction, and make a case that a polarizing figure such as herself could possibly bridge polarization in Washington.

Hillary Clinton’s understated announcement Sunday suggested she grasps that “it’s my turn” is not a viable campaign message. She cast herself as a “champion” for everyday Americans when many see her as a creature of Washington and Wall Street. Her challenge, to paraphrase another trailblazing Democrat, is to explain what she can do for the country, not what the country can do for her.